Clean sweep

November 5, 2010

You know those freaks, erm, people who find house cleaning therapeutic? Well, that ain’t me. If only. Truth is I find vacuuming and scrubbing only marginally less tedious than my high school physics class.

And while these products hardly make me want to be an uber homemaker a la Bree Van de Camp (I’m probably waaaay outdated with that reference–haven’t tuned in in years), they’re so effective and well designed that they manage to make household chores a tad more swell.

(1) I’ve got a crush on this Dyson DC25. I actually rewound my PVR the other day so I could check out its’ ad. And one day, it must be mine. Why? A friend lent me her powerful Dyson a few months ago and it turns out that the colour of the area rug in my living room is actually off-white, not murky beige.

(2) When you’ve got a cat (that’s one of my troublemakers below) you’ve got the broom and dustpan out constantly. Alice Supply Co.‘s dustpan can make even sweeping up fur balls a cheerier chore.

(3) When you love eating as much as I love eating, you end up cooking often, and thus you end up with loads of dirty dishes. For me, it was love at first sniff with Caldrea Dish Soap Liquid. Turns washing dishes into an aromatherapy session, I swear.

(4) Doing all those dishes (see point #3) can give you dishpan hands, but not with a pair of Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Gloves on. I used to think you’d have to be coo coo to shell out $17 for a pair of dishwashing gloves. And then I nabbed a pair at a props sale at the office and these cotton-lined gloves lasted all year long protecting my manicures (not that I need to shield my current Axxium manis). These gloves are well worth every penny.

(5) I know you can use castile soap for anything–from washing yourself to cleaning your counters. I can’t quite get myself to use it in the shower for bathing but I do like how squeaky clean this natural product gets my floors (bonus: one multitasking bottle of household cleaner makes way more storage room for all my beauty products). Ten percent of the profits from this version, Kiss My Face Peace Soap, benefits Seeds of Peace.

Honourable mentions (what these lack in coolness and design they make up for in function): Green Works Compostable Cleaning Wipes (for how handy these moist wipes are and the fresh, unobtrusive scent) and Febreze Set and Refresh (instantly became a must-have when a friend walked into my place and said “It smells nice in here”–that’s pretty incredible, considering this little stinker here is running the show).

Filed under: Random Swellness,Swellbeing